Is your aquarium keeping you up at night because of the loud gurgling sound coming from the overflow? If this is a problem for you or you are setting up a new system and are looking for a quiet overflow solution take a look at the Hofer Gurgle Buster. This overflow tube quiets noisy overflows and will allow you to have some peace and quiet in the room with your reef tank. Follow the link to find out more about the Hofer Gurtle Buster and how to build one for your overflow. http://home.everestkc.net/jrobertson57268/HGB/

Calcium, Alkalinity and Magnesium levels are some of the most important water parameters in maintaining excellent water quality. The following link is to an article by Randy Holmes Farley found in the Advanced Aquarist’s Online Magazine. This Article will help you get at basic understanding of how each element affects the reef tank and how to properly correct water that is improperly balanced.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/nov2002/chem.htm

So, you just bought your first Chalice coral (Echinophyllia). You brought home this small, expensive, colored tissue-covered “rock” but have not yet had time to find the right spot for it. Up until this point, you have dabbled in various LPS and soft corals but you are by no means an expert…

So, you place it in the tank next to a prized, two-headed Rainbow Acan you bought last week. You put it about two inches away thinking that should be plenty of space. You go to bed that night with dreams of hundreds of dollars in frags you will sell from this beauty months down the road.

Two mornings later, you wake up, flip on the lights to your tank to see your new prize and to your terror, your prized $80 Acan is a shriveled mess and is clearly dying.

What happened? Read the rest of this entry »

When building plumbing projects for your reef tank it is important to know how much flow you can expect through a given size of pipe. Follow this link to find out what size pipe will work best for your plumbing application. http://flexpvc.com/WaterFlowBasedOnPipeSize.shtml

I just thought I would give shout out to one of my favorite tools for my aquarium. It is the Kent Marine Nautilus Sea Squirt Feeding Prong. I know this is going to sound like a shameless plug, but this thing is really a multi-tasker that I think others should hear about.

Obviously this is a turkey baster-type tool so its primary purpose should be a big duh! But, what I like is that it is telescoping so I can really get to those hard to reach places in my tank. Read the rest of this entry »

OK, so maybe this post has nothing to do with this commercial other than a toothbrush, but it is one minute of humorous diversion.

The real reason for this post is to remind you of an important maintenance task for those of you out there that monitor your tank ORP for any reason, including controlling Ozone. Read the rest of this entry »

What could be more important to your fish and corals than the quality of their water? This article by Randy Holmes-Farley in Reefkeeping Online Magazine discusses reef tank water parameters and has helpful charts you can use to determine and maintain the correct water parameters for your reef tank. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-05/rhf/index.php

When lighting your reef tank what is more important, the intensity of light or its spectral qualities? Dana Riddle and Miguel Olaizola examine the the affects of lighting intensity and spectral quality on the reef tank. This article is from Advanced Aquarist’s Online Magazine and can be found here. http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/feb2002/Feature.htm